The invention disclosed herein generally relates to poultry defeathering apparatus for removing feathers from birds that are transported in series along an overhead conveyor system. More specifically, the disclosed invention includes two banks of pickers that are suspended from overhead support beams, with the banks of pickers arranged on opposite sides of the path of travel of the poultry carcasses, with each bank of pickers having rotatable picking disks with flexible picking fingers attached thereto and arranged to engage and wipe the feathers from the poultry carcasses, with the banks of pickers being rotatably supported on horizontal axes so that the fingers, disks and other elements can be turned over to face directly away from the opposite bank of pickers and the fingers, etc. can be cleaned, replaced and otherwise maintained.
In modern poultry processing plants the birds are hung or suspended in an inverted or head-down attitude from an elevated overhead conveyor and moved in sequence by the conveyor through various processing stations in which the birds are killed, defeathered, opened and eviscerated. When the birds reach the defeathering apparatus, a multiple number of flexible picking fingers engage the bird carcasses and rub against the feathers and the skin of the birds so as to remove the feathers.
It is important that the feather picking equipment be adjustable to bring the ends of the flexible picking fingers into engagement with the entire surface area of the rather irregularly shaped birds, and if the size of the birds to be processed is changed it is necessary to reorient the positions of the picking fingers. For example, it may be necessary to raise or to lower the picking fingers to accommodate smaller or larger birds, to move the picking fingers further away from or closer to the path of travel of the birds to accommodate larger or smaller birds, and to tilt the picking fingers so as to engage the more horizontal surfaces of the birds. While the various prior art feather picking equipment has included adjustments for the positions of the picking fingers, it has been somewhat difficult for maintenance personnel to replace worn or damaged picking fingers and to clean the facing surfaces of the opposed banks of pickers. The picking fingers of one bank of pickers face the opposing bank of pickers, and the maintenance personnel must position themselves between the banks of pickers when replacing the picking fingers or when cleaning or performing other maintenance functions on the banks of pickers.